Lazard Hires Managing Director to Bolster Restructuring Business

By Leslie Picker

Jan. 19, 2016

As energy companies continue to struggle with the sharp drop in oil prices, Lazard is beefing up its restructuring business by hiring a new managing director: Ken Ziman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

But Lazard’s head of global restructuring, David Kurtz, said he would have tapped Mr. Ziman in any market.

“Ken is and was a superb lawyer, but he was a lawyer that was always very sensitive to the business dynamics,” Mr. Kurtz, who is also Lazard’s vice chairman of United States investment banking, said in a phone interview. “He was very good with numbers, very practical, very deal-oriented. In addition to being excellent at hard-core lawyering skills, Ken presented a package of skills that allowed him to fit in well here.”

The opportunity to recruit Mr. Ziman to Lazard presented itself late last year while the two worked closely on the bankruptcy of Millennium Health, a drug-testing company. Mr. Ziman was the deputy practice leader of corporate restructuring at Skadden, which was providing legal advice to Millennium Health on the bankruptcy, along with Mr. Kurtz, whose firm was the financial adviser.

After working well together on the deal, the two started discussing whether it would make sense for Mr. Ziman to move over to the investment banking side. Ultimately they agreed it did, and announced the hire on Tuesday in a statement. Mr. Ziman will be based in New York and start at the firm on March 1.

At Skadden, Mr. Ziman had been a partner since 2010. Previously, he had worked as a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, according to the statement. He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree at Colgate University.

Lazard is known for its restructuring practice, having advised on more than 500 such deals worldwide over the last decade.